PRAIRIE VIEW, Texas – With the 2017 non-conference season in the rear view mirror, the Prairie View A&M University soccer team opens its Southwestern Athletic Conference slate traveling to both Jackson State and Southern over the weekend. 
 
The Lady Panthers will battle the Lady Tigers on Friday at 3 p.m., before traveling over to Southern to clash with the Jaguars Sunday at 1 p.m.
 
In addition to looking to start on the right foot toward its chase for the postseason, with the tournament to again be held at PVAMU in early November, the Lady Panthers will also look to put past competitions away and start from scratch after several non-conference losses.
 
"This is a new opportunity," PVAMU head soccer coach Abe Garcia claimed. "We are virtually wiping the slate clean with the start of conference play.  This will be a fresh start as we are back at 0-0 and are ready to see what we can do within our conference and potentially put ourselves in a position to be better than we were last year."
 
The Lady Panthers will need to come out the gates strong, as neither team has posted a victory in 2017.  Garcia noted that it will have to start with defense, especially against solid teams as Jackson and Southern.
 
The last time Prairie View A&M and the Lady Tigers met was on October 23 at PV when the Lady Panthers outlasted Jackson State in a 6-3 victory at the New PVAMU Soccer Field.  Sophomore Paiton Maples led the team with two goals in that game.  She leads all players with one goal on the season.  Blair Lane, Diane Neff, Alexis Mack, and SWAC Preseason First team member Mila Butos each scored a goal apiece during the JSU game.
 
Last season in the stadium opener the Lady Panthers fell to Southern in a 1-0 match up, just before closing out the 2016 season and hosting the SWAC tournament. 
  
"It's been an overall learning process for all us as a staff and team," Garcia said. "We look forward to seeing our team play and the players trying to put into action the things that we as a staff are expecting them to do."
 
 
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